Skip to main content

Discontent & Defeatism

As I continue to read through the book of Numbers, I am daily shaking my head at perpetual discontent among the Israelites. Imagine how irritated Moses was! Have you ever had to manage or work with a group of chronic malcontents? It's amazing how just a few of them can absolutely suck the life out of the whole place!...perhaps even the whole galaxy, if they weren't limited by atmospheric forces. 

Today, we (and I mean the royal "we") might have a legitimate, documented, witnessed, recorded, notarized, TMZ-grade Titanic-size boatload of complaints, but how much does it REALLY help to make those issues the center of your attention? (or the entirety of it?) The Lord knows we all need to vent a little, once in awhile, but this should be done in very limited quantities, and with a very private audience--someone you trust implicitly. That would NOT be your Facebook or Twitter audience, ladies (and gentlemen).

William Shakespeare wrote: "Mind your speech a little lest you should mar your fortunes." 

Freedom of speech is such a horribly abused practice. I have seen more respectable people diminish their own images by the stream of complaints they constantly issue--creating a Peanuts Pig-pen style cloud of whatever you might call the antithesis of a life force all around them. They air their dirty laundry with everyone, harping on how cruelly and consistently they have been wronged, how awful the world is, and so-on. In the background, picture their beautiful, healthy children, nice clothes, a roof over their heads, the ability to read, write and sit down to a hearty meal---much more than the majority of the world will ever have the opportunity to enjoy.

Ask yourself--how much energy, time, and effort am I wasting on petty complaints? Could that time be better spent quietly developing and deploying solutions instead of stirring up discontent and playing the victim? I never read anything, from biography to fairy tale, where the hero emerged victorious with a defeatist attitude, and I'm pretty sure if the Queen of England (every girl's gold standard of good conduct) had a facebook page, she would not be plastering it with complaints about her son's debaucheries, how ill-treated and misunderstood she is, how she can't enjoy a cup of tea anywhere in society because everyone is so fake and deceitful...

How can we possibly expect our daughters to have the healthy, vibrant outlook that the challenges of their lives will require, if we conduct ourselves with so little dignity?

If we have to zip our lips and zip-tie our hands to keep from blabbing and tweeting all our wounds and woes, maybe we should. Not everything that's true needs to be said (certainly not broadcast).  

Author Stephen Covey, who has unlocked so many secrets to personal and professional success, wrote: "Stop being a critic and be light; don't be a judge, be a model." We all have spheres of influence much larger than we suspect--instead of being a black hole in the middle of it, be the sun.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

#INSUFFICIENT Part 3...Running on empty

Every day, in some way or another, we seem to come up short. Our output exceeds our income, and we are "in the red" when it comes to so many things, such as time, energy, money...even enthusiasm. Being tapped out seems to have become the norm, as we chase every opportunity, pursue countless friendships, enlist ourselves in every new cause, and rack up accomplishments, jam-packing our resumes, calendars, and Facebook friends list until we don't have a single spare moment to ourselves. From the outside, it looks like a "full life;" on the inside, it feels pretty empty. How can something so empty feel so heavy? First of all, "more" isn't necessarily "better." Have you ever been behind a group of tween girls ordering their drinks in a coffee shop? They like the fru-fru girly coffees, with lots of sugar, calories, and every possible option, extra this, extra that...Aside from taking FIVE-EVER (I just learned this term from my daughter-...

Obligations

So, you made it through Monday, presumably... How many days have we wished away, that could have been significant in our life--or the life of another--if we had only "exerted ourselves," as Jane Austen so beautifully described it? So many things we know we should do--yet we don't. Yesterday, my husband traveled hundreds of miles for a 30-minute funeral, but I had encouraged him to go. It was important to the family, overall, but especially meaningful to the immediate family of his great uncle, who passed away.  Many times in our lives, we have these opportunities. Sometimes we take them; sometimes we do not. I have found that I always regret NOT going, rather than the reverse. It made me think -- it's time to look at our social and familial obligations in a different way. Once I read something written by a life coach who encouraged the philosophy of taking each day more deliberately--especially in the way we verbalize it. Instead of "I have to go to the st...

#Bullied

I just read a news post that absolutely did NOT astonish me--a report by NBC news that 52% of women report being bullied in the workplace. Sadly, this is higher than the teenage bullying rate (about 30%, according to the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center ). A sustained rate continuing through adulthood would be shameful enough, but the fact that we are more likely to experience bullying as grown-ups at work does not speak well of our upbringing, does it, ladies? Excuse me while I get technical for a moment. I'm not a statistician, but, after many years of government work, you learn to break these things down. We can most likely account for the increase by the broadening of the definition of bullying. While physical attacks comprise a smaller section of the overall problem with adults, there are far more opportunities for psychological torment and sabotage. Ah, the sabotage! It's horrifying enough to get thrown under the bus when things don't go well, but...